Archive for December, 2011

For the seventh night of Hanukkah, give your child a personalized jersey! Get iron-on letters and designs online or from your local craft store. They are available in a variety of colors, patterns, and textures. Iron on letters spelling his/her name to the back of a camp shirt or jersey. Or use blank clothing and write his/her camp or bunk name and year on the front. Get creative and hav...

For the sixth night of Hanukkah, make a camp and Hanukkah-themed word find puzzle for your happy camper. Get a piece of paper (a lined one will make it easier to create rows) and draw a large box on it that takes up most of the page, leaving some room for the list of words the player will need to find. Choose the words you want the player to find. Write each one twice – once in a list on t...

Not sure what to do for the fifth night of Hanukkah? Make a slide show! Have your campers choose their favorite photos from the summer, the school year, your last vacation, even from when they were babies! Plus, take some new pictures today – kids lighting the menorah, opening presents – and let your kids be creative by handing them the camera to take shots of whatever is going on in the...

The third night of Hanukkah is here, and tonight’s project is burning a CD. Sure, we know that most music comes in digital form these days, but nothing says camp like a mixed CD. It’s a great gift for your friends to take to camp, and their bunkmates will be thanking you all summer long!
How do you select the music? Start by brainstorming songs that remind you of summer—fun, bre...

As the week of the 71st Union for Reform Judaism Biennial approached, I asked my friends and congregants what they were most anticipating. For those who had attended a Biennial in the past, the answer was unanimous: they couldn’t wait until Shabbat services and the Song Session that followed. I was somewhat surprised by thi...

For the second night of Hanukkah, friendship bracelets made of beads and leather make great, personalized (and camp-y) gifts! Make a friendship bracelet with a special word or name—the name of your child’s camp or bunk, perhaps with her name and the name of her best friend, or just “I Love Camp.”
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Hanukkah is here! Kids all over are excited for latkes, jelly donuts, games of dreidel, and of course, presents! Bring camp to Hanukkah this year with eight homemade gifts sure to delight your happy camper. They make perfect gifts for a bunkmate, favorite counselor, or friend going to camp for the first time too. These are great projects to do for your camper or with him/her over ...

The Foundation for Jewish Camp is employing a new format at Leaders Assembly 2012. It is designed as an “open space” style conference which we are referring to as peer-to-peer programming and its goal is to empower, energize, and encourage the creativity of everyone who takes the challenge and comes ready to p...

Nadiv is a five-year grant program of the Foundation for Jewish Camp, funded by the Avi Chai and Jim Joseph Foundations, to create partnerships between a Jewish residential camp and a Jewish school in each of six communities (see the press release here). The goals of the partnerships ar...